BOM defends weather warnings issued in Brisbane

The Bureau of Meteorology's Regional Director for Queensland Rob Webb has defended the bureau's decision not to release a warning too early on Saturday morning for a severe thunderstorm to lash the city.

The weather bureau has copped criticism on social media and local media across the weekend for not releasing a severe thunderstorm warning after it began pounding inner city suburbs in Brisbane.

Some residents have denied they were sufficiently warned about Saturday's brutal weather activity but the bureau's Regional Director for Queensland Rob Webb says he has full confidence in the BOM's experienced forecasters.

"We would have liked to have a warning out a little earlier but we did work hard through the week to prepare the south-east Queensland community for the potential for severe weather."

He said potentially dangerous storm activity across the weekend was expected, with duty forecasters warning ABC Local Radio during interviews in the region in the lead up to the weekend.

"We did lots of radio interviews about the upcoming weather, to tell people that storms may track across."

Senior Forecaster Michelle Berry told 612 ABC Brisbane on Friday morning, 24 hours prior, that people should look out for warnings issued by the BOM due to the potential of severe thunderstorms on Saturday.

"There's a high likelihood of some severe storms into Saturday afternoon and evening. So we ask that everyone listening to watch for warnings we issue on Saturday if they're necessary," Ms Berry said.

Mr Webb says the storms changed in their intensity as the front of the storm hit the CBD on Saturday morning.

"Forecasters were monitoring those storms, and watching them come across Brisbane, and given it was early in the day the forecasters felt the storm would pass through without reaching the high ends of severe weather, and in most parts of Brisbane that's what happened."

Mr Webb says it's a good reminder to residents of south-east Queensland to be prepared for regular and severe summer storms.

"Once we are forecasting thunderstorms people should be aware that they can change in their structure fairly quickly, and they should be keeping an eye on their environment as well as their surroundings."

He says a warning issued for every thunderstorm would lead to complacency in the community.

"There has been significant criticism in the past over the bureau trying to cover every single storm with a warning. So we need to have a threshold there."

Western suburbs bear the brunt of Sunday storm

Residents waking up in Brisbane's western suburbs on Monday were met with trees down, continued power outages and smashed windows after a weekend of storms in Brisbane.

The State Emergency Service (SES) received more than 500 requests for assistance following severe storm activity across south-east Queensland on Saturday and Sunday.

The majority of reports came from the western suburbs of Brisbane particularly River Hills, Jindalee, Kenmore and Middle Park after a severe thunderstorm early on Sunday evening produced large hail.

Ipswich, Goodna and parts of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast were also impacted.

The increased activity across the weekend sent 48 SES including 17 from the north coast area, 15 from the Brisbane area, eight from the south-east area and eight from the south-west area.

SES volunteers responded to roof repairs, clearing debris as well as hail damage to homes including smashed skylights and blocked.

Mike Swanston from Energex says across the weekend 100,000 customers were affected.

At 1pm AEST less than 1,000 people across the south-east were still without power.

"We recorded 33,000 lightning strikes over the weekend, and these had a lot of energy in them."

"We had about 100 wires down, a lot of those because of the sheer surge of current and then we had a lot of wires down because of the trees."